Preparedness: Always Needful; Long-Term Tyranny? Not So Likely

h/t Bayou Renaissance Man

I didn't feel like I had a long post in me today; just nothing the muse was itching to belt out.

And then, I saw Peter had a long post on various things up at BRM; you should RTWT. 

But regarding one of the sub-topics, i.e. a decades-long tyranny here?

Point Of Order:

Preparedness is a fine thing, but let's get serious.

Everyone who looks at "how it is" in the rest of the world when civilization goes to sh*t, overlooks to their eternal peril a vital difference:

The Rest Of The World isn't armed to the teeth with more loose small arms and ammunition at large amidst the general population than the world's next 10 largest militaries, COMBINED.

FAFO

Which kind of undoes any napkin math on the topic that doesn't take that into account, whether we're talking foreign despots, or domestic wannabees.

Anyone from the nominal Top Dog on down who forgets that factor is going to die with a third eye in their forehead and one heck of a surprised look on their face.

Somebody, anybody, including FedGov, thinks they're going to "lock it all down" interminably, and institute Communist/Medieval serfdom on this nation?!?

Average Joe's toleration of "public good" screw tightening has eroded down to the wear bars on that particular tire. Ain't nobody having another helping of that, nor likely to anytime this century.

It is to laugh.

Somebody tries that anyways? Fed agent's pelts - whole body mounts, mind you, not just the horns - would be nailed to every wall from Maine to Monterey, and snitches' and collaborators' heads would decorate every fencepost in sight, from sea to shining sea.

In minutes and hours, like as not, and not in months or years.

And, given so much as a "What for?" nudge, they most assuredly will do exactly that.

This will be no seventy-year slog of waiting for the edifice to fall over of its own weight.

People in this country lack the patience (or innate subservience) for that sort of wait-it-out crap.

They're going to go out and start killing something. More specifically, someones, plural. In job lots. Google "great gross".

Carlos Hathcock had 93 confirmed kills in a jungle war, mostly in a single tour of duty of under 13 months. Chuck Mawhinney's official tally is recorded at 103, and another 216 probables in the same conflict. Simo Häyhä chalked up 542 Reds in only under a hundred days in the snow, maxxing out at 25 in one day. With a bolt-action rifle and iron sights!

Be like Simo.

Put in simple terms, if there's as little as one Simo in 30,000 in the entire U.S., the entire problem is gone - forever - in the amount of time it takes to put one Marine through boot camp. (And the waiting line to sign up for that has gone pretty quiet of late.)

There's no respawn button, they can't shake-and-bake new orcs fast enough to overcome that problem, and even the hordes pouring across the border are going to be headed the other way the minute that happens.

Pepe LePew couldn't clear out a town as fast as two-way gunfire hereabouts is going to solve the illegal alien problem. Least of all if some of it squirts in their direction.

And trying to disarm the populace triggers the exact scenario the feds are earnestly hoping to avoid.

10,000 problem children?

In WWII, under occupation by actual Nazis with SS and Gestapo given free rein, the French Resistance was less than 3% of the total population.

10,000 problem children in this country now would only be 3.333/100,000ths (0.00003333) of 1% of the US population, i.e. 10,000x easier to pull off.

"But Blutto, we're afraid! The government has nuclear weapons!"

Uh huh. And how long can those guys last in that hole if there's 100 farmers with deer rifles up top, and Wyoming, Nebraska, etc. cease to be permissive operating territory?

How long does the flight line last at Whiteman AFB when the locals start popping anyone who gets within 100 yards of a B-2 on the ramp, and you can't land a plane or get a food truck onto the base?

How long you gonna sustain subs when the crew can't return to port, and has to survive on what they can catch freehand off the deck?

Major League Stupid in this country is over in a season.

No one's going to be inclined to wait three generations, and hope their grandchildren someday breathe free oxygen again.

That rot will be burned to the ground in days to weeks.

(Take the J6 mob, this time with actual guns and torches, like a real coup would have included, and let your imagination run wild for about 0.2 seconds. We'd be short about 600 senior government members in a matter of that many necktie parties under those circumstances.)

Speculate all you want about what happens here the day after that.

But a multi-year reign of tyranny in this country is going to be like trying to paddle a canoe up the falls at Niagara.

And that's before the criminals they can barely contain with 90% public support for law and order decide to pile on, because they aren't obeying any stinking laws.

This country will not revert to Zimbabwe. Dodge City or Deadwood are far likelier.

There isn't going to be New York City law at that point, any more than there'll be Moscow or Beijing communism for more than a hot minute.

But Committees of Vigilance and hanging judges will become all the rage. And there's one whale of a lot more people than just 10,000 waiting and more than willing to give that another try.

A long emergency is a distinct possibility.

It would most likely occur after an incredibly brief and brutally violent short-term tyranny.

If anyone's not planning for that, they aren't planning for a long emergency, they're just planning for a long inconvenience.

Best wishes with that outlook.